did a back-to-back listening comparison '17 LT stock vs. '17 Bose vs. '13 Bose

5849 Views 43 Replies 22 Participants Last post by onevoice, Sep 29, 2017

VoltenRock

Discussion Starter · Sep 10, 2017

I've been kicking some gen 2 tires and wanted to see whether the Bose is a must have.

The dealership had an LT and a Premier right next to each other. I took my iphone (with connecting USB) and a well-known song that had some dynamic range, some bass heavy sections, some singing, some higher treble notes.

The salesperson was busy, so he gave me the keys and told me to have fun comparing the sound systems. Even better! No pressure.

Let me share my impressions:

The stock (non-bose) was "better than expected" -- mainly because it had more low end than I thought it would without a subwoofer. Let me be clear that this does not mean "good"--it got muddy and distorted quickly.

The Bose, however, was "worse than expected"--I had read that many issues with the Gen 1 Bose were fixed in the Gen 2, but I think the Bose in my '13 is overall better, with some caveats.

The Gen 2 subwoofers are better placed and offer more "punch" than the '13 (and much more than the stock LT). The Bose would vibrate my seat--and offer "louder" sound at lower "volume" than required in the LT. In fact, the Bose system was absolutely "louder" overall.

My disappointment was the muddy sound. It was just not clear and wide, despite the lower end. I didn't have time to start investigating the system in depth to figure out why, I just used some fading and adjusting with the EQ to get a sense of its range. The '13 seems clearer to me.

Both the Bose and the stock suffered from "narrowing" of the sound--neither offered a wide, crisp sound--although the Bose was marginally better.

Bottom line -- the Bose did not reach "must have" territory for me and I would settle with a stock system and look at upgrades later if worth it. I just didn't think it was "good enough" to warrant the extra cost over the stock system--I would rather pay more aftermarket for a system I would really enjoy than "more" for a "less bad" system.

Funny thing is, getting back into my '13, I played the same song for comparison and found that it was crisper and clearer overall, but it didn't have as much low end punch (but I also have a heavy Volt mat in the back).

I know this is an issue that many people question and I just wanted to share my $0.02--it's obviously an issue of personal taste for everyone.

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JATO757

· #41 · Sep 20, 2017

Insight Refugee said:
I don't know if I've gotten used to it, or it's "broken in", but after being initially disappointed in the Bose system I really like it now. I'm not an audiophile, so take this for what it's worth.

I feel the exact same way about the Bose system in my 2017 Volt. I was a little disappointed the first week or so, but then things seemed to change and a lot of the “muddyness” went away. I have a feeling these speakers may need a little time to break in before sounding their best.

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Norton

· #42 · Sep 20, 2017

Speakers 'breaking in' is a real thing.

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vtech

· #43 · Sep 26, 2017

I finally got the new tweeters installed today. They were the Tianle AMT65-4 3.5" AMT Tweeters from Madisound. It is definitely a big improvement in sound quality from the stock Bose tweeters for both treble and midrange. Best Buy installed them for $95 which I thought was very reasonable. I haven't decided if I am going to change the subwoofer or not.

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onevoice

· #44 · Sep 29, 2017

vtech said:
I finally got the new tweeters installed today. They were the Tianle AMT65-4 3.5" AMT Tweeters from Madisound. It is definitely a big improvement in sound quality from the stock Bose tweeters for both treble and midrange. Best Buy installed them for $95 which I thought was very reasonable. I haven't decided if I am going to change the subwoofer or not.

Glad things worked out for you, vtech.

One of the reason that the stock subwoofer sounds so boomy is that it is mounted in a plastic enclosure that resonate with the subwoofer. You can try to eliminate this resonance by installing sound deadening material. While you are at it, you might as well take off the hatchback floor, and apply the sound deadening material to every part of exposed metal you see. This will help to eliminate the resonance/boominess of the subwoofer.

If you do decide to upgrade the subwoofer, I suggest upgrade to the Dayton subwoofer, it is worth every penny. Also, you can add a new dedicated Alpine subwoofer amplifier. The nice thing about this Alpine subwoofer amplifier is that you can use the speaker wires that fed the stock subwoofer as the input to the Alpine amplifier. Since the 12V batter is very close to the subwoofer, you can use a 5-6 feet of 10 gauge wires from the 12v battery for power to the Alpine amplifier. This amplifier also has circuitry to shutdown when no signal is present in the input wires and power up when a signal is detected, so the operation is seamless and automatic. After these upgrades, the bass sounds will be world apart from the stock and will sound more like a upscale home audio system rather than an car audio system. The bass sound will be well defined and you can hear and feel the bass. I did all these upgrade myself, but I'm sure your local car audio shop could install all these for a fee. I know all these costs add up, but for me, the end result was well worth it.

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